Welcome Back: Matt’s Second Wooden Surfboard Course

21 . 02 . 19

​When we first started running make-your-own wooden surfboard courses, we honestly never considered that somebody might come back to make a second. But, it’s now happened enough times to be more than a coincidence. In December, we welcomed Matt back to the workshop to make himself a 9’1” Wicket.

Matt made a 6’4” Woodburner in the summer of 2015, and surfs it regularly at the breaks around here (he lives just down the road in the next village), and it’s been away with him on surf trips too, most notably Indonesia. At our Annual Gathering of Makers last September (the weekend each year when we invite all past workshoppers back for a few days of waves, shared stories and a night of good food and drink), Matt swapped surfboards with another former workshopper for a few waves (his fish for their longboard) and thought that maybe he needed to add a 9’+ surfboard to his quiver. Between the surf in the morning and the evening event when everyone is invited to stand their surfboard up against the barn wall, show’n’shine style, Matt had made his mind up; he was just about to finish a huge three-year work project and had a bit of time off to take over the next couple of months. The AGM was, it turned out, the perfect shop window for us to tempt him back for a second week on the tools! This was never our intention when we started inviting workshoppers back each year, but the end result of welcoming a friend back to make their second surfboard is a very welcome by-product. Matt remembered his way around the tools and processes, so the week was really lovely and relaxed, and punctuated with plenty of tea breaks. He’s now got a quiver of surfboards bookended by wooden boards that he’s made himself, which is more than we could have ever dreamt of when we started doing this.